Abstract

How one goes about teaching medical ethics greatly depends upon one's interpretation of the discipline itself. Before discussing pedagogical isslIes, the primary focus ofthe paper, I will address the question of what "philosophical" medical ethics is and is not. I will then suggest some alternative approac:hes forincluding such material in a variety of different contexts, including courses geared toward philosophy students, those focusing on undergraduate students preparing for careers in one of the health care professions, and those actually within professional schools, primarily medical schools, with which I am mostfamiliar. I will end with remarks on the implications of medical etllics for medicine and for philosophy.